diff --git a/base/iobuffer.jl b/base/iobuffer.jl
index 1c6fef776dbf5..6005d780c4cc6 100644
--- a/base/iobuffer.jl
+++ b/base/iobuffer.jl
@@ -193,7 +193,7 @@ function unsafe_read(from::GenericIOBuffer, p::Ptr{UInt8}, nb::UInt)
     nothing
 end
 
-function unsafe_read!(dest::Ptr{UInt8}, src::{UInt8}, so::Integer, nbytes::UInt)
+function unsafe_read!(dest::Ptr{UInt8}, src::AbstractVector{UInt8}, so::Integer, nbytes::UInt)
     for i in 1:nbytes
         unsafe_store!(dest, @inbounds(src[so+i-1]), i)
     end